The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

Road Socialism 193
that “The dominant characteristic of rush hour traffic is not jam
but movement.” 24 Maybe in rural Idaho, but not on the streets
ofthe typical metropolitan district. 25
THEORETICAL INNOVATION
It cannot be denied that there is some innovation in the mainstream
literature on this subject. In large part, it is due to the
work of Lave. In that paper he explored the possibility that it is
not really speed, per se, which is statistically associated with roadway
deaths but rather the variance in speed. 26 If true, the highway
authorities should concentrate not necessarily on slowing
things down as much as on reducing the tails of the speed distribution,
whether at the high end or the low. In Lave’s opinion,
“Variance kills, not speed.” 27
This point was sharply criticized. 28 But in none of this
exchange was there ever any mention of omitted variable bias as
it applied to private roads. 29
24 Ibid.
25For an analysis of traffic congestion as due to a lack of peak load pricing,
and this, in turn, as a result of road socialism, see Walter Block, “Congestion
and Road Pricing,” Journal of Libertarian Studies 4, no. 3 (Summer,
1980).
26Charles Lave, “Speeding, Coordination and the 55-MPH Limit,” American
Economic Review 75, no. 5 (September 1985): 1159–64. Others who have
written on this include T.C. Schelling, Micromotives and Macrobehavior (New
York: Norton, 1978); Nicholas J. Garber and Ravi Gadirau, Speed Variance
and Its Influence on Accidents (unpublished manuscript; AAA Foundation for
Traffic Safety, Washington, D.C., July 1988). Ezra Hauer, “Accidents, Overtaking,
and Speed Control,” Accident Analysis and Prevention 3 (January
1971); and Walter Block, “Free Market Transportation: Denationalizing the
Roads.”
27Lave, “Speeding, Coordination and the 55-MPH Limit,” p. 1159.
28See David T. Levy and Peter Asch “Speeding, Coordination and 55-
MPH Limit: Comment,” American Economic Review 79, no. 4 (September
1989): 913–15; Richard Fowles and Peter D. Loeb, “Speeding, Coordination